Ramblings on bookish matters. Horror and fantasy have the lion’s share, but not exclusively. Occasional interviews, art posts and bumblings.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

UK Cover & US Cover (again)

Last month there was quite a debate regarding the differences between the cover artworks of the UK edition and US edition of the upcoming Joe Abercrombie’s novel, “Best Served Cold”. And that is not a singular case, there are many other covers that have such differences. I have to admit that, in most of the cases, I am very fond of the UK editions when it comes to cover art. But here is a case where I believe that the US cover is much better.

I’ve recently read and enjoyed K.J. Parker’s novel, “The Company”, but I have to say that I am not impressed by the cover art (seen in the right). I think that is an interesting one, depicting a chain mail, and relates with the fact that the main characters are 5 retired veterans. And like the statement on the cover “The war is never over” it can deceive a reader, because the novel is much more than that and has a lot more captivating aspects. But with honesty I say I wouldn’t have picked this cover.

The novel is scheduled to be released on the US market, by the same publisher Orbit Books, on September this year. And through their nice website and the publishing schedule from there I discovered the cover art of this edition (seen above). And that’s a very good and different one. In my opinion it captures much better the atmosphere and more aspects of the novel. And personally if I were in a library from the two of them I would certainly pick up the US edition.

Late edit: I have to apologize because it seems that I overlook some aspects before writing my post. Thank you very much, Phoenix, for pointing that out.

The initial cover is for both UK and US editions. The second cover is for the paperback edition which will be released on September. Anyway I believe that the second cover art is indeed an improvement.